John Torrey is a very successful Realtor in Arizona who has been donating part of his commissions to Nonprofits for many years. You might say that it is in his DNA. In fact this is an important part of his real estate business and he presents this feature of doing business with him in his marketing and outreach to the public. Most interesting is the fact that for years John donated 10% of every commission to a Nonprofit, but when he joined REBSEA he increased that to 20%. John has shown great leadership in demonstrating just how effective Social Enterprise can be. It is good business and it is good for business, which is a great definition of a Social Enterprise like REBSEA. Read his story below:

I really like assisting non profits and I have been doing it since my lending days back in NY. I do several 'out of the box' things to help promote the program: I meet with a nonprofit to explain the program, show then the section on my website that is for "Giveback AZ" (my REBSEA program). I also make sure they are above the AZ average 73% pass through rate... I discover with the nonprofit how they market to their clients (donors).... once we determine that we put a plan in place and then we attack it. I make sure they are doing the majority of the work.... Here are some of the following things that we do:
I have my own weekly radio show and bring a nonprofit on to discuss their great cause (this puts them in front of over 50k listeners and tons more on podcast)
We create joint marketing and send it to their database in their newsletter each and every month (email to keep the cost down) plus syndicate it on social media sites
I attend their events (their main ones)
I donate my time (and my families time) at several of them - boxing food, serving homeless people and much more... (very rewarding and puts me with other donors)
I have sponsored golf events ( I pledge to donate an amount ie.- 10k and the nonprofit calls me the sponsor and we raise the funds at the event - someone always needs to buy)
I have done full page articles in several magazines (local St. Vincent DePaul (over 70k copies) Mask (Mother's Awareness for School Age Kids - another 100k copies).
Created my own team of lenders, title co., insurance agents, financial planners etc. who give back a portion of their commission as well.... they also blast it through their database, social media etc (as do I)
Every listing i take I blast to my database and the database off all team members and tell them if they have a client looking to buy please send them my way and I will donate 20% to the charity of their choice or one of mine
I have many more things we do and many more on the horizon.... other REBSEA team members are welcome to email me questions or to brainstorm... Perhaps we create a Facebook page that we can all go to (private group) that we can share ideas?
There is no wrong thing to do if it is being spread to the general public and YOU are not doing all the work.... I donate 20% of my commission which is typically $3500-$5,000 per deal... They need to invest the man power to do the day to day work and one of my staff works with them to make sure it is done correctly and on time. It is very rewarding for me and my family to be a member of REBSEA and to encourage others to do the same as a way to Give Back to our community.
HomeSmart Realty